A Fine Mess — A friend serving in the Bush administration called Sunday to try to talk me out of my doubts about the $700 billion financial bailout the administration was asking Congress to approve. I picked up the phone, and made the mistake of good-naturedly remarking …

Cash for Trash — Some skeptics are calling Henry Paulson's $700 billion rescue plan for the U.S. financial system “cash for trash.” Others are calling the proposed legislation the Authorization for Use of Financial Force, after the Authorization for Use of Military Force …

CEO pay emerges as bailout barrier — Flying in the face of Congress and both presidential campaigns, Treasury is resisting efforts to impose pay limits on Wall Street executives and bankers whose companies stand to be helped by the government's $700 billion rescue plan for the financial markets.

Dodd to seek changes to Treasury relief package — Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.) said that the $700 billion bailout for Wall Street firms proposed by the U.S. Treasury Department needed to be modified and Democrats would most likely add new provisions to the package.

For release at 9:30 p.m. EDT — The Federal Reserve Board on Sunday approved, pending a statutory five-day antitrust waiting period, the applications of Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley to become bank holding companies. — To provide increased liquidity support to these firms as they transition …

Palin on Ahmadinejad: ‘He Must Be Stopped’ — Governor Palin, the Republican nominee for vice president, was scheduled to speak today at a rally in Dag Hammarskjold Plaza to protest the appearance here of President Ahmadinejad of Iran. Her appearance was canceled by rally organizers who sought a nonpolitical event.

Palin draws crowd of 60,000 in The Villages — THE VILLAGES — Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin told wildly cheering, flag-waving, chanting supporters that John McCain is “the only great man in this race” and promised Sunday he will fix the nation's economy if voters give the GOP four more years in the White House.

Steering the McCain Campaign, a Lot of Old Bush Hands — When Gov. Sarah Palin flew home to Alaska for the first time since being named the Republican vice presidential nominee, she brought along at least half a dozen new advisers to conduct briefings, stage-manage her first television interview …

Conservatives Try New Tack on Campuses — COLORADO SPRINGS — Acknowledging that 20 years and millions of dollars spent loudly and bitterly attacking the liberal leanings of American campuses have failed to make much of a dent in the way undergraduates are educated, some conservatives have decided to try a new strategy.

Obama campaign staff pulling out of ND — BISMARCK, N.D. — Barack Obama, who has deployed more than 50 staffers in North Dakota in an attempt to become the first Democratic presidential candidate to carry the state since 1964, is pulling out. — An Obama spokeswoman, Amy Brundage …

Early voting starts today in some states — FAIRFAX, Va. — Voters by the thousands will begin casting ballots for president this week in an early voting process that's expected to set records this year. — Residents of Virginia, Kentucky and Georgia are among the first in the nation eligible to vote in person, as well as by mail.

Team McCain tosses more chum overboard — McCain's campaign knows they have to shift the debate away from one solely focused on the near-collapse of the economy on the watch of a Republican administration. — They began this effort last week by having McCain lay some of the blame …